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Yoliswa Dube-Moyo, Senior Reporter

AS a young wife in colonial Rhodesia, Cde Jane Ngwenya used to strap her daughter, Elizabeth, on her back to attend meetings that later culminated in the liberation of the country. 

NaBigboy, as she was affectionately known by her near and dear, Cde Ngwenya grew thirstier for the country to be liberated by each day she lived under the shackles of white minority rule. 

She was actively involved in the politics of the time despite the fact that she had young children to look after. 

Her thirst to see the country in the hands of black majority rule led to her arrest in the early 1950s. 

She was imprisoned for three weeks at Grey Street Prison (now Bulawayo Prison) in what she described as appalling living conditions together with her daughter who was barely two-years-old at the time.

“I couldn’t even dip a cloth in a bucket of water so I could clean my breasts in order to breastfeed my baby. The water was so dirty. It was a health hazard. I would just sit with my baby in a corner of the dirty cell. Some white women led by a Mrs Watson, wound up protesting that I be released from prison because it wasn’t healthy for me to be in there with the baby. I got out after three weeks,” said Cde Ngwenya (86) as she meticulously narrated her ordeal.

She said her home life was never the same after her jail experience.

“My husband tried to convince me to stop political activism. I’d sometimes restrain myself as a mother and wife but he couldn’t contain me. Later on, we had to divorce. Kwasekuyi rice elamatshe, sekulumela (Our relationship was now unpleasant). Even my family was in support of his discouragement of my political activism. Abakithi babesithi kanti kwenzelwani, umuntu ongumfazi but I didn’t care anymore. The liberation struggle was really important to me,” she said with great emphasis.

She refused to conform to patriarchal expectations and societal norms that dictated that a woman’s place was in the home.

Cde Ngwenya said her husband, George Tinarwo, became impatient with her involvement in politics in the early 1950s leading to their divorce. 

“My husband was not happy with my involvement in politics because on several occasions the Rhodesian police came to our home looking for me. He always complained about that saying ngumfazi bani otshona edingwa ngamapholisa? (what kind of wife is always wanted by the police?),” she said.

Cde Ngwenya said when she first participated in politics, she did so with her husband.

“When my husband and I started, we used to attend meetings together. We would leave church at St Patrick’s and go to a place called Slaughter Poll for meetings. When we got home, we would even discuss what was said at the meetings. But as time went on, my husband started getting scared. Eventually wangala lubaba (he divorced me). However, I was not deterred. I resolved to be married to what I believed because I was angered by the brutality of the whites who had beaten my grandparents. I then remained without a man, ngiyisaliwakazi (divorcee) because of that.”

The seven-year marriage which was consecrated at St Patrick’s Catholic Church collapsed because she had a choice to make. Her marriage or her country. 

She chose her country and was divorced at the Bulawayo High Court.

Sir Hugh Beadle who was the judge then said to her: “Do you actually think a black person can rule this country? You are a stupid girl, you destroy your marriage because of silly things. You can’t run yourselves (black people), you have to say thank you to the people who brought civilisation to your country.”

 

She said she just ignored him because there was a fire burning on the inside of her. She just wanted to go back to the people and fight white oppression. 

Sixty-five years later, she still feels strongly about her decision to call time on her marriage and join the struggle to liberate the country. She has no regrets and believes no one, not even her ex-husband, could have convinced her to stop fighting white minority rule.

Following her divorce, Cde Ngwenya moved in with an uncle in Njube before securing her own place in Mpopoma suburb. Her ex-husband had taken over the care of their children.

“We got divorced in 1960 and shortly after that, the National Democratic Party was formed. Ngaliwa, ngisalelwa ukulwela ilizwe (My husband divorced me because he couldn’t keep up with my interest in the politics of the country). But I didn’t get interested in politics when I was a wife or a mother. I got interested as a young girl doing Standard Six. It was in 1949 when I was at school where I asked a question that got me expelled,” said Cde Ngwenya whose political brain is still sharp. 

She had asked the clerics at her school whether the heaven they were always preaching about was for blacks only or white people could also enter it.

“I didn’t realise that I had deeply offended umfundisi. He responded by saying heaven was for everyone but I had deeply offended him. He went on to tell the headmaster, Duncan Manhanga, that I was rude and I was barred from writing exams,” recalled Cde Ngwenya.

Nationalist and the most prolific of the first generation of black Zimbabwean creative writers in English, the late Dr Stanlake Samkange came to her rescue.

“Together with Father Kachidza and Mr McMillan, they pleaded my case until I was allowed to write my exams,” she said. 

Cde Ngwenya said the real struggle started with the workers. 

“The trade unions are the ones that paved the way for us because the workers were the first to feel the heavy handedness of the white settlers. In the rural areas, people used to lose their cattle to the colonisers. They would be beaten and suffered all sorts of brutalities,” she said.

The then mother of two said she would go around mobilising people to join the liberation at the thick of the night. 

“Sasihamba sinyenyela sikhuluma labantu (We would sneak around, mobilising people). I would leave my children at home playing with my niece. The whites were very happy to see us sleepy but when we started mobilising ourselves, they knew an uprising was coming,” said Cde Ngwenya. 

Apart from serving detention at Grey Street Prison, now Bulawayo Prison, she had time at WhaWha detention camp in Gweru before being taken to Gonakudzingwa where she met several nationalists who were also incarcerated at the camp.

She said her political career was spurred by inspiration from founding nationalists such as the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, Benjamin Burombo, Joseph Msika and Josiah Chinamano as well as former President Mr Robert Mugabe.

Cde Ngwenya who served as Deputy Minister of Labour, Manpower Planning and Social Welfare in the early 80s was involved in the formation of the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress in 1952, the National Democratic Party in 1960 and Zapu two years later.

She later crossed into Zambia via Botswana to join the liberation struggle where upon her arrival she found Cdes Jason Moyo, George Silundika and Edward Ndlovu in charge of Zapu and she became the fourth leader of the party.

The persuasive tongue that led people to leave the country in droves to answer to her plea for Zimbabweans to join the armed struggle through her radio programme broadcast by the Zambia Broadcasting Services in the mid-70s is still as sharp.

Cde Ngwenya is the only survivor of the PF-Zapu national executive that was there at Independence in 1980. – @Yolisswa